The human beings that UK government ‘forgot’

As David Cameron’s
panicked government puts on a compassionate face, we meet people harmed by
punitive policies.

IMAGE: PATRICK KODUAH

Today we publish the
story of Emma, who suffered a mini-stroke after being harassed by the UK’s Department
for Work & Pensions. Her mother Penny complained to all the right people
but there was no clear line of accountability, no identifiable person to take
responsibility for easing the stress of Emma’s move to the Personal
Independence Payment, a long-term disability benefit.

So, when on Friday the work & pensions minister Iain Duncan Smith
resigned, saying that disability benefit cuts
were indefensible within a Budget that rewards higher rate taxpayers, there
was a brief moment of relief for Penny.

After a weekend’s turmoil in the Conservative party
leadership and rising public awareness that budget cuts would take £3,500 a year
from 370,000 disabled people, Duncan Smith’s replacement Stephen Crabb
announced a U-Turn. “Behind every statistic is a human being and perhaps
sometimes in government we forget that,” Crabb told MPs.

Benefits claimants, essentially people
like you or me who may have fallen on hard times or have been struck with
illness, have for years been treated with mistrust. To receive a small sum each
fortnight, which barely covers living costs, they must meet unbending conditions.

Under Duncan Smith the system became
even more punitive, so that when a person couldn’t meet arbitrary conditions
because they were too ill or happened to be raising children as well, they would
be punished.

This meant that their money was taken away,
reducing them to poverty and putting some at risk of homelessness.

In 2013 we wrote about Jen, a
single mum and former graphic designer who lost her job and couldn’t pay her
mortgage. Going to the jobcentre was hell for Jen, she was mocked because of
her bipolar disorder and made to feel “less than human”.

One interview was so stressful that she had a psychotic episode at the
jobcentre and was hospitalised. Jen was put on the Work Programme, one of
Duncan Smith’s first welfare initiatives designed for people who have been unemployed for more than one year, to “support” them
back into work.

Jen experienced it as a punishment. “I felt like I’d
been picked on … bullied. I knew I was trying hard to find a job. So it just
felt completely unfair and unjustified. This person had decided that I was a
slacker. It makes you feel like you have got no options. It makes you feel like
a cornered animal.”

Under Duncan Smith’s tenure single parents, 92% of whom are women, have lost the most; they’re more
likely to face sanctions, which is where a
claimant’s benefits are stopped for a week or more as a form of punishment for
not meeting certain conditions set out by the jobcentre.

Women make up the biggest group hit by changes to housing benefit and they struggle to meet the
shortfall created by the under-occupancy fee – widely known as the bedroom tax
– another of Duncan Smith’s policies, introduced in 2013 for working age
claimants living in social housing deemed too large for their needs.

Last year we wrote about
Gemma, a depressed mother who couldn’t afford the under-occupancy fee imposed
upon her after three of her four children were taken from her. Gemma fell
behind in payments, accrued a debt of nearly £2,000, and was facing eviction.

Social housing evictions continue to rise, mostly as a result of rent
arrears. Lydia Nash, Gemma’s solicitor, told us that sanctions and the bedroom
tax were the major reasons for her clients getting into arrears.

Angela, a single parent who contacted us after we wrote
about Jen, said Duncan Smith’s policies – a punitive back to work programme and
sanctions – made it harder to escape poverty. She added: “Once you become poor,
once you become their problem, then you stop being yourself. You stop having
the right to determine your own
future.”

Sialou is another single mother we
interviewed caught up in Duncan Smith’s regime, but facing double the
problems because of her migration status. In his resignation letter Duncan
Smith talks of his commitment to improving the “life chances of the most
disadvantaged people in this country”.

Sialou was studying for GCSEs in maths and English to improve her
life chances, but the jobcentre told her to quit so she’d have more time to
look for work. “I cried. I couldn’t do it,” she said. “I hated the system. I
never saw what they were doing for me. Every time I went to the jobcentre, it
was always threats. No help to move up. I think the jobcentre people are not
really thinking for themselves. Or they want to help you, but they can’t
because of the rules.”

Our first look at the impact of
Duncan Smith’s policy on women’s lives was written three years ago. We still
receive comments from people struggling to cope. The people he says he wants to
help. Here are some of the
comments from our readers:

‘Single parent’ says:The most frustrating thing about the job
centre is that they are not there to help you they are there to make sure you
have ticked all the right boxes and jumped through the right hoops to get your
money that week. If there was a more positive approach, if they assessed each
single parent based on their circumstances then they might have more success
reducing the number of lone parents out of work.

‘SM2b’ says: I am a single parent of a 4 year old and have been bullied and
threatened with losing my benefit every single time I have attended the Job
centre.

‘Gaz TI’ says: Single dad to a 7 year old just facing my first jc sanction for being
unable to attend one of 3 per week hour long sessions sitting on a computer
searching for work in the job centre itself, (despite having home Internet) 4
weeks without funds due to my daughter having a tummy bug.

‘mum1’ says: I have just been sanctioned for 4 weeks. Long story but when I first
signed up, I made it clear that childcare was a massive problem in my area, it
states in my claimant agreement that I have childcare issues too. We agreed
that it would be ok for me to look for term time only positions … But she’s
[new jobcentre advisor] sanctioned me for not applying for work. I have not
applied for things because they are not term time. I feel I'm being penalised
for having children and the stress I’ve been under the last few weeks has left
me crying and just shaking all the time!

Last week the Women’s Budget Group revealed that the poorest
households, in particular lone parents and single female pensioners, will lose
even more of their incomes once universal credit, Duncan Smith’s flagship
policy which would amalgamate the main working age benefits into one payment, is
finally rolled out by 2020.

The brutality of the fitness to work assessments
carried out as part of the former work & pensions minister’s reform of
disability benefits is well documented. The Centre for
Welfare Reform discovered that disabled
people bear the burden of 29% of all welfare and local authority spending
cuts, according to a report they published in 2013. Their research showed that
people with the severest disabilities will pay 19 times more than the rest of
the population for the cuts.

Under Duncan Smith the brown envelope landing on the doormat from his
department is a source of terror for claimants across the country. Most will have stacks of these letters: quiet threats to remove all support, numbers
that don’t match the rent or heating bills, and bureaucratic errors with
devastating consequences (it is common, for example, for housing benefit
mistakes to create rent arrears leading to eviction).

Sometimes it becomes too
much. There was no one to help Libia Montaya, 57, understand all these letters.
And no one took responsibility when her employer cut her hours and she fell
behind in her rent and had no money for food. We wrote about her eviction in
2014, after which she tried to swallow bleach. “I couldn’t think about where to
go or what to do. Committing suicide was the only way to leave behind all of
these problems.”

In the UK the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.

About the author

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi is a reporter, editor & writer. Co-edits Shine a Light. Writer in residence for Lacuna magazine. Twice shortlisted for Orwell Prize. Winner of Scottish Refuge Council media award and Write to End Violence Against Women award. Tweets @Rebecca_Omonira

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